NEWS - EUROPE
Neste appoints Peter
Vanacker as President & CEO
Neste Corporation’s Board of Directors has
appointed Peter Vanacker President and
CEO of Neste as of 1 November 2018. He
will join Neste on 1 September 2018 as a
Senior Executive and start familiarizing himself
with Neste’s business and operations.
Matti Lievonen, who has served as Neste
Corporation’s President and CEO since
2008, will retain his position until 31 October
2018 and will retire at the end of the
year. Peter Vanacker is currently CEO and
Managing Director of CABB Group GmbH,
a leading globally active fine and specialty
chemicals company.“I am looking forward
to continuing Neste’s success story by further
pushing boundaries together with all
Neste’s employees, the Board of Directors
and my colleagues in the Executive Board.
Neste is an amazing company characterized
by an innovative spirit, high performance,
global leadership and the enthusiasm
of its employees,” said Mr. Vanacker.
BP will install electric vehicle chargers on its UK sites
BP will install electric vehicle charging points
at some of its UK forecourts later this year
as part of a new trial to see how conventional
fuel forecourts can be integrated with
EV charging requirements. With over 3,100
forecourt sites in the UK, BP has invested
$5 million (approx. £3.5m) in FreeWire, a
US company specializing in rapid charging
systems for electric vehicles. BP will trial
FreeWire’s Mobi Charger at selected sites
in the UK. The Mobi Charger doesn’t need
hardwiring in like a conventional charging
booth, and can be moved from one vehicle
to another - supporting up to 10 vehicles
at once at both normal and rapid charging
rates. The company has yet to disclose how
many UK forecourts will be part of the trial.
The news follows a previous announcement
by the company’s chief executive Bob Dudley
who said BP was in talks with a number
of vehicle manufacturers over a “tie-up with
our retail network for charging. According
to Tufan Erginbilgic, chief executive of BP
Downstream: “EV charging will undoubtedly
become an important part of our business,
but customer demand and the technologies
available are still evolving. “Using FreeWire’s
mobile system we can respond very quickly
and provide charging facilities at forecourts
where we see the greatest demand without
needing to make significant investments in
today’s fixed technologies and infrastructure.
The opportunity also to explore options
for providing charging services away from
our existing retail sites makes FreeWire an
ideal partner for BP.”
Euro Garages acquires 762 retail fuel stations in the US
EG Group has announced petrol forecourt
convenience retail expansion plans in United
States by entering into a definitive agreement
with The Kroger Co. for the sale of their
762 site network for $2.15 billion. Kroger’s
convenience store business operates in 18
US states and includes 66 franchise operations.
The stores employ 11,000 associates
and operate under the following banner
names: Turkey Hill, Loaf ‘N Jug, Kwik Shop,
Tom Thumb and Quik Stop. Kroger’s convenience
store business generated revenue
of $4 billion, including selling 1.2 billion
gallons of fuel, in 2016. As part of the transaction,
EG Group will establish their North
American headquarters in Cincinnati and
continue to operate stores under their established
banner names EG Group is a leading
petrol forecourt convenience operator in Europe
who currently owns and manages circa
2,600 sites across the United Kingdom,
France, The Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg
and Italy, employing over 12,500
colleagues across leading retail brands
such as ESSO, BP, Shell, Carrefour, Louis
Delhaize, SPAR, Starbucks, Burger King,
KFC, Greggs, Pomme de Pain and Subway
Mohsin Issa, EG Group Founder and co-
CEO expressed: “This is an exciting time
for EG Group, the entry into the US market
presents a fantastic opportunity to deliver a
successful retail offer to consumers across
the various states. “We have had much success
across Europe and we firmly believe
the Kroger assets present a fantastic foundation
to overlay our retail experience and
know-how in the US” The transaction is still
subject to regulatory approval.
Shell team up with BCG to battle Uber in London
While the current loss of its licence in London
seems not to have impaired Uber’s potential
for business in the immediate future,
it has opened the market up for competitors
capable of differentiating themselves from
the allegedly unsafe app. Fare Pilot, a new
machine learning venture, backed by Shell
and BCG Digital Ventures aims to do exactly
that. The duo are scaling a data platform
and mobile application for professional hire
drivers that will leverage new techniques in
Artificial Technology to anticipate customer
demand, utilising live hotspot data to get
more fares, as well as saving drivers money.
Fare Pilot already boasts a fleet of active
users having ventured into London, Los
Angeles and New York, in preparation for
a global rollout. Shell has already applied
for a licence to operate private hire taxis
in London through one of its subsidiaries,
marking the first move by an oil major to test
out Uber-style technology in Europe’s biggest
car-booking market. While the group
remains the UK’s most valuable brand, Shell
have been working to diversify their offering
amid flagging demand for fossil fuels.
PKN ORLEN to build its own
network of EV chargers
PKN Orlen is launching a pilot project to
install fast chargers for electric vehicles at
its service stations. By the end of 2018, motorists
will be able to recharge their electric
cars at stations located along Poland’s main
transit routes The newly deployed points will
be able to recharge all types of electric vehicles
available on the European market. All
will be equipped with two DC charging connectors
supporting the CHAdeMO and CCS
standards, as well as a Type 2 connector
for AC charging. A 50 kW DC fast charging
station can charge electric vehicle batteries
from 20% to 80% of their full capacity within
20–30 minutes. The project will be implemented
from 2018–2019, with the first points
in service by the end of this year. As well
as the transit locations, chargers will also be
installed at PKN ORLEN premises in Płock
and Warsaw. “Our aim is to ensure that in
2019 drivers of electric cars are able to travel
across Poland along the main routes relying
only on our charging points,” said Wojciech
Jasiński, President of PKN ORLEN.
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